Camels in the cathedral

Fr. Matthew H. Zuberbueler

1/06/17

Just when we think the fun of Christmas is dwindling, we
encounter mysterious visitors bearing gifts. The story of the Magi fascinates
believers each year and is rich in meaning. The theme of World Youth Day 2005,
“We have come to worship Him,” was chosen because the event was held in
Cologne, Germany, in whose cathedral a giant reliquary holds the relics of the
Magi. Large enough to hold a camel, the ornate reliquary reminds us that the
original Wise Men were real people who were willing to be led by a deeply held
desire to know God.

At that same World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the
mystery and meaning of the Magi. He said the gifts they brought with them were
gifts clearly meant for a king, but a king who was also divine. These seekers
were aware of the troubles in the world. They were seeking an answer in a king
they believed was soon to be born. Their sincere quest contained surprises. The
newborn king wasn’t at the palace. Instead, they continued to follow the star that
led them to Him.

The baby King they found was clearly different from other kings. Pope
Benedict said,

“The new King, to whom they now paid homage, was quite unlike
what they were expecting. In this way they had to learn that God is not as we
usually imagine Him to be. This was where their inner journey began. It started
at the very moment when they knelt down before this child and recognized Him as
the promised King. But they still had to
assimilate these joyful gestures internally. They had to change
their ideas about power, about God and about man, and in so doing, they also
had to change themselves. Now they were able to see that God's power is not
like that of the powerful of this world. God's ways are not as we imagine them
or as we might wish them to be.”

At the end of such a long pilgrimage we can understand something
important about the willingness these Magi had to learn from the journey and to
learn from the Child. The experiences of the pilgrimage of life are similar. The
sacrifices made for a dearly held belief are sacrifices that we hope will bear
fruit. In the case of the Magi, the efforts they made to find Him changed them
and gave them a docility to His way of exercising power. Of course they wanted
to learn from the One they found, after all, He was the One who called them
there. In our lives, we can trust that any sincere seeking we do will bring us
closer to the truth Jesus wants us to find — even if we have to adjust what we
thought we knew.

Pope Benedict continued, “God is different — this is what they
now come to realize. And it means that they themselves must now become
different, they must learn God's ways.

They had come to place themselves at the service of this King, to
model their own kingship on His. That was the meaning of their act of homage,
their adoration. Included in this were their gifts — gold, frankincense and
myrrh — gifts offered to a King held to be divine. Adoration has a content and
it involves giving. Through this act of adoration, these men from the East
wished to recognize the child as their King and to place their own power and
potential at His disposal, and in this they were certainly on the right path.”

The young people in Cologne had come as seekers too. We pray the
mystery of Epiphany again this year as seekers. Together with the many who have
sought Him before and who seek Him now we take to heart Pope Benedict’s words,
“They must become men of truth, of justice, of goodness, of forgiveness, of
mercy. They will no longer ask: how can this serve me? Instead, they will
have to ask: How can I serve God's presence in the world? They must
learn to lose their life and in this way to find it. Having left Jerusalem
behind, they must not deviate from the path marked out by the true King, as
they follow Jesus.”